A PRACTICAL REFORESTATION POLICY 



By George A. Retan 

 Professor of Forestry, Pennsylvania State forest Academy 



Recently there have appeared tentative plans forecasting the extent 

 and expense of the reforestation w^ork to be done in Pennsylvania. It 

 has been assumed that 75 per cent of the State-owned land must be 

 reforested artificially, the whole operation to be completed within one 

 rotation. It has been estimated that the total expense of this plan, 

 allowing compound interest, will amount to nearly four hundred million 

 dollars by the end of the 75-year rotation, and will be refunded by 15 

 years after final cutting begins.^ It has been claimed by several writers^ 

 that the State ought to own six million rather than one million acres. 

 At the given rate the reforestation of this area would require an ex- 

 penditure of over two and one-half billion dollars. Before accepting 

 such a plan, it may be worth while to examine the silvical and economic 

 status of the area in question, to ascertain what meliorating factors may 

 be present, and to suggest a practical policy for the work. 



Such an examination will show that the State ought to own a much 

 larger area than it does ; that immediate reforestation is unnecessary, 

 owing to the good silvical condition of the State forests ; and that plant- 

 ing ought to proceed according to the economic development and growth 

 conditions by methods proved applicable. 



There are about fourteen million acres of land in Pennsylvania that 

 may be classified as woodland'' or absolute forest land. Of this, ap- 

 proximately nine million acres are not included in farm woodlots. This 

 area is in comparatively large blocks of contiguous forest and should 

 be secured by some owner, whether State or corporate, who is willing 

 to protect and improve it. 



At present the State owns one-ninth of tiiis area, more or less con- 

 centrated in the central counties. Three or four million acres, lying at 

 the headwaters of the Susquehanna and Ohio rivers, is. as yet, largely 



' Fernow, B. E. : "State Forestry." Forest Leaves, August, 1917. 

 ' Ibid., p. 55. 

 Zieglcr, E. A. : "The Immediate Need of Extending State Forests." Forest 

 Leaves, August, 1915, p. 62. "Pennsylvania's Potential Forest Area and Land 

 Policy." Forest Leaves, June, 1917, p. 34. 

 * Ibid.. June, 1917. 



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